This is the WFHB Local News for Monday, July 6th, 2020.

Later in the program, local resident and member of the Monroe County Human Rights Commission, Vauhxx Booker, a black man, was physically assaulted by a group of white men at Lake Monroe on Saturday. In today’s program, you will hear from Booker’s attorney, Katharine Liell.

Also coming up in the next half hour, a few Minutes with the Mayor – where we ask Mayor John Hamilton about local issues.

But first, your local headlines.

Six new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed in Monroe County yesterday, statewide the number was three-hundred-and-thirty.

That’s according to the Indiana State Department of Health, which also attributed five new deaths to COVID-19 over the weekend, bringing the total number of deaths to two-thousand-five-hundred-and-five.

Bloomington installed a Safe Haven Baby Box at the Bloomington Fire Department station at 300 East Fourth Street.

This box provides a safe location for any individual to leave any unwanted infant legally and anonymously. According to a Hoosier Times the city began consideration of the project in 2018 when Eric and LeeAnna Powell came to the fire department after having dealt with the death of an abandoned baby through funeral home work. In 2018, only 3 boxes were installed throughout the state, now there are 32 across Indiana.

According to the article Fire Chief Jason Morre said, “Every City of Bloomington Fire Station is already a safe place and a designated location where someone could use the Indiana Safe Haven Law to surrender a newborn.”

When a child is placed in the box a silent alarm informs the firefighters inside that a child has been left. The alarm also informs Monroe County Central Dispatch in the event no one is at the fire station.

The report clarifies from the Indiana Department of Child Services website that, “if there are no signs of abuse, no information such as date of birth and parental medical history is required of the individual leaving the baby, even though it’s appreciated. Babies dropped off this way are examined, given medical treatment if needed and taken into Child Protective Services to be placed with a caregiver.” The project will provide any people experiencing a crisis pregnancy an ensured safe place to leave their infant.

Over the July 4th weekend, a group of white people physically assaulted Black community leader Vauhxx Booker at Lake Monroe.

The racist assault comes shortly after two purported racial profiling incidents in Monroe County. One of them, which also involved the DNR at Lake Monroe, purportedly involved Black Indiana University athletes on one boat and white individuals on another boat flying Trump flags.

The incident resulted in the arrest of one white man who was praised on social media for standing up for the Black athletes. The other incident happened in Bloomington, IN, where a white, plainclothes officer, in a unmarked police cruiser who identified himself as a detective from neighboring Lawrence County, approached a black man walking near his house, after receiving a complaint that the man was purportedly looking into car windows. The man denies looking into the windows, claiming he was just going for a walk.

The Hoosier Hills Food Bank will continue their Fresh Friday Food Distribution through August. This will be a distribution of free food every other Friday from 11am to 3 pm at the Hoosier Hills Food bank – 2333 W. Industrial Park Drive.

There are no income or identification requirements to receive food. The distribution dates are as follows. July 10th, July 24th, August 7th, and August 21st. The program started in June and provided distribution to 393 households. In the last week of June the program served up to 765 households. The food bank reported their distribution rates to be at a 52 percent increase from the same time last year.

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